If anything I hope it will give you a better idea/guide of what makes for an easily repeatable session set up and movement pairs.

– W/U – Arbitrary movement work to help you RAMP*

– Skill – Lift Practice, say Bent Press or Snatch

– Strength Section – For Hypertrophy, Strength etc

– Conditioning Section – Accessory work or a Finisher

– C/D – Standard cool down and flexibility development

Pretty simple, not gospel, just useful for some to know.

I would advise that you rotate your training days so that you have a mixture of Hard-Medium-Easy sessions.

Often an easy session with precede or follow a heavy session, that is just good common sense and planning, that way the majority of your training will be in the medium effort range, just right for making progress.

As for pairing things together, these work well:

– Push, Hinge, Loaded Carries

– Pull, Squat, Loaded Carries

– Full Body Lifts, Carries

– Sprinting Endeavours & Movement

The above offers a good way to set things up for super sets, tri-sets, circuits and so on.

As for sets and reps here are the guidelines I follow for myself:

– 90%+ lifts 10 reps total

– 70-80% lifts 50-75 reps total

– <60% lifts 75-250 reps total

Training 2-7 times per week following the above works quite nicely, just make sure you cover each movement pattern (push, pull, squat etc) equally for general GPP, if you need to add in SPP then hire a coach.

Use the above well, it might just make putting training programs tother easier than you currently find it.

Given the return of the sun in the UK to means you still have use for your beach towel, however once the sun finally says it’s goodbyes I want to share with you some ways in which your beach towels can stave off becoming dust ridden and moth eaten until the next time the sun is out in full force.

1 – Towel Grip Pull Ups

Pretty self explanatory, throw it over a bar, tree branch or support beam, grab the ends and start doing pull ups.

2 – Towel Deadlifts

Wrap the towel around the bar to thicken it up and deadlift to your hearts content, you can also have two towels and hold them in a similar fashion to what you would doing a pull up (meaning you won’t be holding the bar, just the towels so make sure they are strong).

3 – Towel Farmers Walks

Put some plates or any weight in the towel, wrap up said weight and hold the end, from here carry them until your grip gives out or you hit your desired distance or time.

4 – Any Gym Cable Movement

Put the towel through the Carabiners and away you go.

Pretty simple really.

These kinds of exercises will give you a tremendous improvement in your grip, back and overall strength, start off lighter than you think you should and build from there.

Sergey Litvinov was a hammer thrower, one of the best ever you could say and was renowned for his training and his ability to train on the nerve.

The training protocol of his namesake was a simple Front Squat & 400m Sprint pairing, now it sounds easy, however here is what he used to do it with:

Eight reps of front squats with 405 pounds, immediately followed by a 75-second 400-meter run. He repeated this little combination for a total of three times according to the history books.

Oh, he was also only a 196-pound man, who front squatted 405… eight times, you know, no big.

*Barry Ross would also do similar with his athletes, lots like great minds think alike.

He would do this with various other lifts but the run would typically stay the same. 400m is great for power output and improving VO2 Max.

Now the big take home from this little anaerobic concoction is that you want to have a large compound movement followed by ann all out sprint, repeated 3 times.

Easy on paper, yet it will yield untold benefits in terms of strength, power, conditioning and mental grit, trust me, after the first one you don’t want to do it again, however you must because that’s how champions are made, that’s how winning is done.

Here are some example of compound lifts you may use:

– Cleans

– Clean & Press

– Clean & Jerk

– Push Press

– Push Jerk

– Jerk

– Deadlift

– Front Squat

– Squat

– Overhead Squat

– Snatch

The do a 400m sprint, rest as needed and repeat 2 more times.

The sprint is best left as a running sprint for most people, you can change it to say a sled push/drag, however you’ll then start to move away from the classic Litvinov ethos and create something different.

Try it for a couple of months 2-3 times per week, you’ll welcome the results.

^^ A sentence many a man has said over the years and continues to say to this day.

“I want to be lean and strong”

^^ Something I’m pleased to announce more women are saying, it seems there has been a shift in them saying ‘I just want to be skinny’ to now learning the benefit of being lean and strong, it’s great to see.

While it is only my opinion, I feel everybody should be strong.

I’m not talking about record breaking strong, just strong enough to stay healthy and stave off the effects of ageing on the body.

These sports all centre around lifting:

– Weightlifting (olympic lifting)

– Body Building

– Powerlifting

– Strongman

– CrossFit (some may not like this one)

Did you know lifting weights can have the following positive effects on the body:

Personally I’d say the mental improvement is the pivotal one as this can have the biggest impact on a persons life in a very positive way.

However….

If you’re not an athlete and lift for health/confidence you should do it because you enjoy it, not because you feel you have to, that’s the secret to balance and long term sustainability.

Don’t eat yourself up if you miss a session, chalk it up to life and sue it as a rest day, that way you’ll be more motivated when you get to go in, excited to train in fact. Keep this in mind and you’ll find you don’t fall out of love with training.

What if lifting isn’t for you?

That’s cool, find soothing you do enjoy, here are some other options for improving strength and all achieving all the other benefits mentioned above: